Associated Press serves as a cover-up for U.S. losses

undercounting US casualties in Iraq

Despite daily reports about mounting anti-occupation attacks in Iraq, Americans hear very little from mainstream media about the most basic facts of what’s going there.

The Associated Press, among other news agencies, undercounts casualties as part of the Bush administration’s effort to hide the true costs of the war.

Since the beginning of March 2003 invasion of Iraq, AP, an American news agency, and the world’s largest such organization, has continuously failed to give the true account of U.S. casualties in Iraq, as it would tarnish the image of the Bush administration which insists that the American invaders are achieving great successes in the war torn country and that the security situation there is under the strict control of the occupation authority.

Relying on accounts from a few Iraqi hospitals and the U.S. military, the AP, a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers and broadcast stations in the United States, who both contribute stories to it and use material written by its staffers (Wikipedia), claims that only 2,314 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of Iraq war in March 2003, echoing accounts released by the Pentagon, which refuses to give details concerning such accounts.

The U.S. Department of Defense claims that the total number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq through Tuesday, March 21 since the start of the war on March 19, 2003, was 2,319.

But according to information uncovered previously as part of an inquiry by the Government of Puerto Rico and confirmed by El Diario/La Prensa’s review of multiple documents, including official reports issued by the U.S. Department of Defense and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior, more than 4,076 troops under U.S. command have been killed in 799 days of battle.

This information contrasts with the limited information on casualties reported by the Associated Press and the U.S. military authorities, which focus only on U.S. uniformed troops.

Military affairs expert Jose Rodriguez Beruff from the University of Puerto Rico said that the figures showing more than 4,000 dead indicate that, far from winning the war in Iraq, “what is happening is that the troops are being worn down.”

Traditional theorists calculate that for an armed invading force to win a guerrilla war, its casualties should be one to ten of its enemy’s. In this case, that would require 40,000 casualties among Iraqi fighters, according to GlobalResearch.ca.

Also according to E&P, Editor & Publisher, the number of U.S. soldiers killed is three times higher than the counts cited by the media, including the AP accounts, which are being circulated among most news agencies.

The Associated Press has been concealing the number and condition of U.S .military personnel who have been wounded in Iraq.

The undercounting of U.S. casualties in Iraq demeans the cost the U.S. soldiers pay for the American President’s lies. More than 100,000 U.S. soldiers who had been deployed in Iraq sought medical treatment.

The difference in reporting occurs because so-called non-combat deaths are not reported.

In December 7, 2005, Members of Congress sent the U.S. President George W. Bush, demanding that the Department of Defense, to stop undercounting U.S. casualties.

“We are concerned that the Department of Defense has been under-reporting casualties in Iraq by only reporting non-fatal casualties incurred in combat. We write today to request that you provide the American people with a full accounting of the American casualties in Iraq since the March 19, 2003 invasion, including a full accounting of the fatalities, the wounded, those who have contracted illnesses during their time overseas, and those suffering from mental afflictions as a result of their service in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. We are concerned that the figures that were released to the public by your Administration do not accurately represent the true toll that this war has taken on the American people.”

Estimates on the number of U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines medically evacuated from Iraq by the end of 2003 because of battlefield wounds, illness or other reasons ranged from 11,000 to 22,000, a staggering figure by any standard, World Socialist Web Site said.

But unfortunately, AP is not alone among major U.S. media outlets in downplaying the true casualties in Iraq war. Its estimates are used by many other major news agencies.

AP’s biased reporting on the true U.S. military casualties serves continuous claims by President Bush, determined to stay the course in Iraq, however without presenting any evidence for his optimism. There is not the slightest indication that current U.S. strategy in Iraq is diminishing the capability of anti-occupation rebels and the resistance fighters in Iraq. The biased reporting of Iraq war the AP presents only serves as a protection to the already tarnished image of the Bush administration, now facing major slide in its approval rating over its policies in Iraq on one hand, and the American military, having difficulty in recruiting army personnel on the other.

Bush seeks to pretend nobody dies in his wars and to hide the true number of deaths.

As a reputable media outlet, the AP should pierce this veil of dishonesty and tell the American public and the world the truth about the casualty count.

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